This invention relates to fishing lures and more particularly, to fishing lures with a buoyant body portion to which fly-tying materials are attached to simulate life-like insects and animals.
In recent years, the sport of fishing as evolved into a multimillion dollar industry, with millions of dollars spent annually on boats, fishing tackle and lures. With the increased interest and emphasis on fishing for popular fresh water game fish such as black bass, crappie, trout and the like, came a rapid expansion in the development and marketing of improved fishing tackle and new bait, and improved lures in particular.
Success in catching fish increases when lifelike bait is used. In particular, coloration, movement, and body attitude in the water are important considerations. Body appearance which more closely resembles the live bait also increases fishing productivity.
The depth in the water at which the lure remains is also significant. Faster moving currents typically exist at the upper surfaces of streams and lakes than at lower depths. To conserve energy, some fish avoid the fast moving currents and prefer to remain at lower depths, coming to the surface only to feed.
Lures which are heavier than water drop to the bottom and do not realistically simulate the proper body attitude and position of the insect or animal. Additionally, these lures are prone to becoming snagged on rocks, logs, and other obstructions.
Some lures or flies are light enough to float on the surface when initially cast into the water. However, when the hackles or feathers become saturated, the lure can sink.
It is known to use floating materials to construct lures so that the lure will float. These lures may then be weighted with lead weights, known as sinkers, attached to the fishing line so that the lure sinks. However, simply attaching a sinker to the fishing line does not improve the lure's resistance to snags, nor is a proper body attitude maintained.
To construct floating lures, it is known to used buoyant materials that are typically attached to the hook to give the lure body a positive buoyancy. Fly-tying materials such as feathers, hackles, beads, foil, threads, plastic, and tinsel are then attached to the lure body by winding thread around the materials to give a lifelike appearance.
Typical floatation materials are spongy in consistency and present problems when the fly-tying material is attached thereto. The floatation material is compressed by the thread windings and the fly-tying material generally cannot be easily secured to the lure body. Often, the fly-tying materials become loose and eventually detach from the lure body wherein the lure unwinds and falls apart. Frequently, to overcome the above-described problem, an initial winding of thread is applied to compress the foam material prior to attachment of the fly-tying materials. This results in time consuming, expensive, and unnecessary steps.
The shape of the flotation material is typically oblong, being thicker in the middle than at the ends of the lure body. Since at least one end of the floatation material tapers, it is difficult to fasten the fly-tying materials by winding the thread around this portion. The taper allows the thread holding the fly-tying materials to slip or unwind. Thus, allowing the lure to come apart.
Since the lure body typically extends along the entire shank of the hook, it can interfere with the hooking ability of the hook by decreasing the gap distance. When gap distance is decreased, it is more difficult to hook the fish since less of the effective part of the hook is exposed.